First language

What languages are spoken in Oxford?

The only information available on languages spoken by Oxford's residents comes from the schools census, which collects information about every child attending publicly-funded schools in Oxfordshire.  This data does not cover the significant minority of Oxford's children who attend private education.

The schools census data shows that of Oxford's children attending state schools, 22% speak a language other than English as their first language.  Most commonly spoken are South Asian languages - Punjabi, Urdu and Bengali - which account for 9% of first languages.  Following these Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Albanian, Polish and Filipino are the most common first languages spoken by children in Oxford.

Data sources

• Oxfordshire County Council

Page last reviewed 13 Aug 2009